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    Each time pfsense restarts, all the Windows hosts see a new network

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • D Offline
      dork.buttons
      last edited by

      Hi –

      I've googled a bit and have not seen this raised as an issue, which I hope means it's such a dumb configuration thing that few people make the mistake of setting - but enough do that someone recognizes the symptom.

      Basically, every time I restart pfsense (2.2.2 running on the 2440 hardware) all of my Windows clients throw  up the "new network detected" dialog.

      I'm thinking there's a variable I've managed to make non-persistent somehow which ought to be persistent, but I'm not sure which one or where to look?

      My lan is assigned to a bridge between the wireless and one of the ethernet interfaces.

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      • R Offline
        rubic
        last edited by

        @dork.buttons:

        I'm thinking there's a variable I've managed to make non-persistent somehow which ought to be persistent, but I'm not sure which one or where to look?

        It's randomly choosed MAC address of the bridge interface. Windows detects new network when MAC of the configured default gateway changes.

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        • F Offline
          fragged
          last edited by

          @dork.buttons:

          My lan is assigned to a bridge between the wireless and one of the ethernet interfaces.

          Sounds like you should use a switch instead of bridged ports on your firewall.

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          • D Offline
            dork.buttons
            last edited by

            @fragged:

            @dork.buttons:

            My lan is assigned to a bridge between the wireless and one of the ethernet interfaces.

            Sounds like you should use a switch instead of bridged ports on your firewall.

            That would make the money I spent to have wireless on the box rather poorly spent :)  I prefer to keep fewer devices around where possible - although there are a number of switches in play, I like managing and monitoring the wireless and firewall together.

            I'll look at how I can assign a MAC address permanently to the bridge port, thank you, Rubic.

            Edit for the next person who looks for this info:

            In the bridge interface page, there is a MAC address field.  Populate that with a MAC rather than leaving it blank.  I used the MAC from the physical lan port which underlies the bridge.

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            • ? This user is from outside of this forum
              Guest
              last edited by

              My lan is assigned to a bridge between the wireless and one of the ethernet interfaces.

              If he inserts a WiFi miniPCIe card into the SG-xxx unit and he creates a new interface for the WiFi card
              that must be bridged to an LAN Port! But all other things should be done by routing and also likes @rubic
              was suggesting you!

              If you reboot, and many settings were lost, you could also try out to set up those
              things in a /bootloader.conf.local to not loose them all, as I see it right.
              The same is coming with updates and upgrades, please don´t forget this.

              For sure it would be even the best to go with external WLAN APs related to a proper and smooth
              running pfSense box.

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              • D Offline
                dork.buttons
                last edited by

                @BlueKobold:

                My lan is assigned to a bridge between the wireless and one of the ethernet interfaces.

                If he inserts a WiFi miniPCIe card into the SG-xxx unit and he creates a new interface for the WiFi card
                that must be bridged to an LAN Port!

                Actually, it doesn't have to be bridged - you can assign an IP to the wlan port and then have one wireless network segment and a second wired network segment.

                But, I wanted the wireless clients to be able to see the wired devices on the network (ie, tablets able to play media to wired media players) and for me it was much, much easier to bridge the networks.

                @BlueKobold:

                If you reboot, and many settings were lost, you could also try out to set up those
                things in a /bootloader.conf.local to not loose them all, as I see it right.
                The same is coming with updates and upgrades, please don´t forget this.

                I have no problem with settings persisting through reboots.  I've most often been rebooting due to dumb moves on my part or to be 100% that a non-working vpn config isn't trying to reestablish - ie, roll back to a backup and then reboot.

                @BlueKobold:

                For sure it would be even the best to go with external WLAN APs related to a proper and smooth running pfSense box.

                I hope this isn't an accurate statement.  I purchased the 2440 from pfsense with the wlan card installed.

                They did not offer a discount on the model with wireless added due to it being an inferior design :)

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